In Fits and Starts
by passionsanddevotions
Summary: After the events of Tell Me What I Need to Know, Rumple tries to help Belle remember herself. For temporalteatime on Tumblr.


Word Count: 1,051

Rating: G

It had been a little bit hard, moving into the flat above the library. It was already filled with things - things Belle did not recognize as her own. Books were very clearly something that had been important to her. Even though the flat had easy access to the library just down a flight of stairs, there were books everywhere - all organized neatly, though she hadn't figured out the system yet.

Henry had allowed her to keep his book of fairytales for the time being and she read the story of the Beauty and the Beast every day, occasionally branching out into other stories as well. She was sincerely hoping that reading her story every day might help her to remember who she was. It hadn't worked so far, but at least the story never got boring.

She was sitting on the couch in one of the tea dresses that seemed to have been her style, judging by the closet, reading through the storybook yet again when a knock came at the door. She set the book down and bounced over to the door, smiling widely. She knew exactly who was at the door; it was a remembering day, after all.

She swung the door open and beamed at the man who was apparently her True Love. She rather believed that to be accurate now. He had been visiting her every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the past two months - ever since he forced the people at the hospital to let her go if she wished it. Every time he visited he brought some small object or another, in hopes they might be the thing to spark her memory. Nothing had done the trick so far.

On Saturdays he took her out for lunch at Granny's. Usually she chose her meal for herself, but she was very curious about the person she couldn't remember being, so sometimes she asked him to pick for her - something she had liked before. Those days were always fun adventures.

Sometimes she liked the things he suggested, sometimes not so much. It delighted her that she could be in the same body, but not like all the same things as the woman she used to be. Sometimes he would ask Granny to make something from the world they all supposedly came from. Those were the best adventures because they were always dishes she couldn't remember ever hearing of. Her favourite was a chocolate tart topped with spiced fresh berries - so many flavours in one food. Mr. Gold had been delighted by her pleasure in it, saying she had made it for him many a time in the Enchanted Forest.

That was something she was slowly accustoming to. Accepting Mr. Gold into her life had been a great deal easier than she could ever have imagined. She always felt so completely comfortable and at ease with him; it didn't surprise her at all that they had lived together for some time. She spent a great deal of time ignoring her subconscious telling her that maybe she ought to try living with him again.

But the idea of the Enchanted Forest - a Fairy Tale world? That was a bit much for her to wrap her head around. But unless every single person in the town was delusional - unlikely - it must be true. So she tried to accept it, but she still felt strange whenever people mentioned things like magic or dragons as though they were real or called each other by their fairy tale names.

She shook herself out of her thoughts and beamed at the man stood in the hallway outside her flat as she grabbed her jacket. Today was Saturday which meant lunch; she was rather in the mood for an adventure today.

"Hullo, Mr. Gold."

He smiled back at her. "Hello, Belle." It wasn't difficult to see why she might have fallen in love with him. She rather thought she might be doing just that now.

Lunch was delicious. She had asked for a recommendation from Mr. Gold and the spicy seafood pasta he thought she would like had been divine.

When they finished their meal and headed out of the diner, she found she very much wanted to stay with him a while longer. "Mr. Gold?" she asked, softly.

"Yes, love?"

She blushed. She didn't think he would refuse her, given all of his endearments and firm belief that they had been in love she saw no reason to think he would mind being in her presence a while longer. Still, she felt some nervousness.

"Do you think - could we go to your shop, maybe? Just for a little while. I really like looking at all of your things."

He stared at her for a moment before taking a deep breath. "Yes. Yes, of course." He held his free arm out for her to grasp, his other hand wrapped around his cane as he led the way to the pawn shop on the outskirts of the town.

She had only been in the small shop a couple of times, but she enjoyed looking at all the little knick knacks stored around. There was always so much variety. Always something new to look at.

She followed Mr. Gold into the back of the shop and gave him her coat to hang up when he gestured for it. She looked around the back room, running her fingers over various pieces of furniture as she moved about.

One of the cabinets had a number of pieces of glassware on the bottom shelf and she bent down to look at them. Some pieces were fashioned into the shapes of creatures, some were decorative vases or jugs. Everything was clear glass except for one item lying across the bottom of the shelf at the back. She reached carefully through the other pieces to pick it up, realizing it wasn't the glass that was coloured. It was the thing inside the glass that was colourful, the glass carefully following every curve of the object.

"Mr. Gold?" She held the object up. "What is this?"

He glanced up quickly before going back to whatever he was doing with the paper on his desk. "It's a rose." He stopped suddenly and looked up at her with wide eyes. "It's a rose." he whispered.


End file.
